Heading into its first game against Georgia Tech, the Syracuse coaching staff decided that speed was a better recipe for success against the option than size.

Head coach Scott Shafer said Wednesday speed was the reason that the Orange opted to move away from their base 4-3 defense and into a 3-4 alignment for the weekend, a move that didn't seem quite so wise after a 56-0 loss to the Yellow Jackets last Saturday in which the defense looked clueless.

"A little more speed on the field," Shafer said. "Trying to research it and how we matched up athletically, we thought that was the way to go. As a coach you fight the 20-20 hindsight but you also learn from it. It's a difficult lesson because we didn't do a good job. At the end of the day, from a scheme point of view, the scheme had soundness in it but we didn't play it as well as we needed to. We weren't as disciplined as we needed to be."

Syracuse went the whole game without figuring out a good way to stop Georgia Tech's rushing attack, which rolled up and down the field even after its reserves were put in.

Option offenses are often based on cut blocking schemes and utilize smaller, quicker linemen, making them especially popular among military academies that can't recruit hulking players.

Army, Navy and Air Force all run option offenses and each of them uses a 3-4 defense to defend the other. When Air Force and Navy met earlier this year, their option offenses combined for 38 points in a 28-10 win by Navy.

Syracuse's effort to match speed with speed didn't work nearly as well.

Shafer acknowledged, like he did on Saturday, that Syracuse was out-coached but said he didn't think the change in defensive alignment created any hesitation or confusion among the Syracuse players.

He credited the biggest part of Georgia Tech's win to the Yellow Jackets out-playing the Orange, not out-thinking them.

"No," Shafer said, when asked if the scheme created confusion among the Syracuse players. "They blocked us better than we got off blocks. Twenty-twenty hindsight maybe I would have had a little more ammunition in the package. But that's what it is, 20-20 hindsight. I got out-coached. That's going to happen from time to time. I look forward to going up against them again whenever that day comes."